Peter Sinn Nachtrieb

Directed by Bridget Kathleen O'Leary

February 21 - March 3, 2010

New Repertory Theatre

Photos: Rob Lorino

Boom takes place, according to the play, “When we least expect it.” Barbara, a docent at a natural history museum, presides over an exhibit showing two twentysomethings in a bunker, negotiating their roles as the sole survivors of Earth’s apocalypse. Nachtrieb started writing the play in 2007, well before American popular culture became so interested in futuristic dystopian narratives and disaster stories and when climate change played a far smaller role in our political discourse. The play invites the audience to watch Barbara revel in the doomsday exhibit and consider where they might fit into this picture. Are we looking back at the bunker scene with whimsy and nostalgia? Or might we be those that the holed-up youngsters lost when the titular boom hit?